Starting Over
by SoundsLikeHeaven
Summary: After a visit to Animal Village with their parents, Timmy and Tommy decide they're old enough for a permanent stay. With a new move, though, comes new friendships, a new job, and maybe even some new secrets. (The plot is set at some point between City Folk and New Leaf.)
1. Prologue

**Prologue** ~

I don't remember my mother very well. My memories of her are clipped and broken; fragments of scents, sounds, and voices that seem to resurface only in my deepest dreams.

When I think of her, I think of winter. I think of the brisk, icy breeze, and the sharp bitter cold of the snow under my bare feet. When I think of her, I think of emptiness. The emptiness that I feel when I wonder why she isn't with me anymore, or why she chose the path for my life that she did.

Most importantly, when I think of my mother, I think of silence. I think of a small, nervous figure standing in the frost, who didn't say a word when she left my brother and I behind.

When I think of her, I wonder if she ever even thinks about us.


	2. Chapter 1

**~ Chapter Two** ~

 **Tommy**

 _Choo! Choo!_

The train's sharp whistle broke through the steady rhythm of the engine chugging along the tracks. After almost three hours, I had slowly drifted asleep at the lulling sound, and now we were almost at our destination. At the sound of the bright screech, and at the slowing of the trees whizzing by outside the window, I snapped straight up in my seat and shook my brother, Timmy, awake.

"Timmy! Timmy, wake up! We're almost to Animal Village!" I nudged his arm. He rolled over a little without so much as opening an eye and batted my paw away from him before snoring again.

"Timmy," I insisted. "Aren't you excited? This is our first family vacation. Don't you want to be the first to see the village, hm?"

"Just five more minutes." My brother muttered these words through the cushioning of the seat that the dark mask of his face was now smashed lazily against. I rolled my eyes when the sound of his snoring returned. My gaze darted across the aisle to the seats across from us where our parents, Reese and Cyrus, sat. I wondered if they would be any more excited for our arrival than my brother was, but of course Dad was lying with a bubble of drool at his mouth too. Mom, however, was peering worriedly at a dusty map of the village in front of her.

"Oh, Cy-Guy," she said to Dad. "Maybe we should pick up another map when we get off the train. The village has probably changed so much since when we visited last! This map is probably obsolete by now."

Dad mumbled something in his sleep. Before I could groan with annoyance at everyone's lack of enthusiasm, the train conductor's voice sounded over the intercom:

"Attention, everyone! Now arriving at Animal Village, eek eek! Please watch your step and form an orderly line to depart the train once we have come to a complete stop, ook!"

I sucked in a deep breath. This was it. I couldn't believe we were finally here.

While I waited for the train to stop completely, I couldn't help but smirk at the sight of my brother lying in the seat next to me, his mind lost in dreamland. His dark mask held two eyes that looked weary even as he slept so soundly, and his ears were perked, as if he was dreaming about something particularly thrilling. His sleeping habits practically mirrored that of Cyrus across the aisle from us. If it weren't for the fact that Timmy and I had been adopted and we weren't related to Reese and Cyrus by blood, I would have said he inherited Cyrus' ability to sleep just about anywhere. Of course, that wasn't to say my brother or my dad were lazy; both had been wide awake the night before as we planned out our first day of our trip to Animal Village.

However, Timmy and I had stayed up even later than Mom and Dad were aware of, as we lay awake in our shared bedroom back in Boondox and discussed what it would be like to return to the town where we had been born. Or rather, where our parents had found us. Timmy and I had heard the story so many times - how our alpaca parents were visiting Animal Village fifteen years ago in the middle of winter, and had found my brother and I as babies abandoned and freezing in the middle of an old tree stump. Of course, pitying us, they had taken us in and had never found out who had left us there, no matter how many flyers they put out. Ultimately, when no one claimed us, they kept us and raised us as their own. Even though I'd heard the story a million times, I couldn't help but shoot my adoptive parents a grateful look while it flashed in my mind. I don't know where my brother and I would be without them today.

"Oof!" I felt a shove in the back of my shoulder that snapped me out of my thoughts. In the midst of my daydreaming, I hadn't realized that both Dad and Timmy had woken up, and it was our turn to unboard the train. Dad stood in front of me with a smirk on his face.

"Hey, little buddy, I thought you were looking forward to the glitz and glamour of the Village!" He grinned. Mom swatted his arm before kneeling down to pick up one of our suitcases.

"Oh, Cy-Guy, don't give him such a hard time. After all, you're the one who slept the whole way here. Come on guys, help me carry these suitcases, and let's go!"

Timmy was still wiping the sleep from his eyes. "That was a long trip," he complained.

Gathering my strength, I heaved one of our suitcases into my arms and began to carry it off of the train. "Come on, Timmy, do you really have to be so negative?" I muttered to him. "We were so excited to come here, and you wasted the whole train trip sleeping."

"Yes, well, you know Mom and Dad are just coming here for business, yes?" he muttered back. "This isn't a _real_ vacation."

I stared at him incredulously. Our parents were already stepping off of the train, saying their thanks to Porter before doing so. I glared at my brother. "How could you say that?"

"Seriously, Tommy? When have Mom and Dad ever taken us on a trip besides for business reasons? You know their shop hasn't been doing well back in Boondox. I bet they're just looking for a better place to set up shop. We'll probably be moving here eventually."

"That's not true," I argued. "Mom and Dad would never want to leave Boondox. That's where all of their friends are, hm?"

"If you say so. At the very least, you can bet they'll be spending most of their time this week advertising and doing sales pitches here. I saw the flyers in Mom's purse this morning."

"What? Really?" I felt a little silly the more my brother spoke. He was right; it was pretty unusual for our parents to just take us on a trip out of the blue like this, unless the motive was for business.

He nodded. "This is going to get real boring, real fast, hm?"

My shoulders slumped for a moment, but then I shot him a sly look. "Well, we'll just have to make our own fun, yes?"

My own mischief reflected in his sparkling blue eyes. "Agreed, brother."

"Timmy! Tommy!" Mom's high-pitched voice squeaked. "Are the two of you coming? We haven't got all day!"

"Yes, Mom!" Timmy and I said in unison, and we quickly scurried down the steps of the train and onto the pavement of the train station. Immediately we were greeted with the crisp spring air of the village where we had been born. I gazed in awe at my surroundings as I stood there beside my family, taking it all in. The trees were so luscious and overflowing with an abundance of fruits - everything from apples to cherries to bananas. Boondox's fruit was sparse, so this was particularly amazing to see. Not just that, but the grass was lush and green, and didn't have patches of dirt scattered throughout like Boondox did. A beautiful stone fountain majestically decorated the front of the station, where twinkling water flowed all around.

"Wow," Mom breathed. "The village really has changed since we last visited."

"Well, where do you want to visit first?" Dad turned to face the three of us.

"We should take our bags to our room first," I suggested quickly. My arms were already exhausted from having to haul it off of the train, and I knew my dad already had the key to the cottage we were renting for our stay this week. To my surprise, ripples of agreement sounded from my family members. Mom once again fretted over the dusty old map in her arms.

"But Cy-Guy, I don't see the cottage on this map. It must have been built since we were last here."

"Don't worry, I know the way!" my dad announced proudly, suddenly sounding very awake despite snoozing for most of the train ride here. "You remember where the post office was, don't you, sweetheart?"

"Oh... I don't know, it's been such a long time ..."

As they bickered for a bit about the location of the post office, I couldn't tear my gaze from the rich expanse in front of me. There were a lot of houses and businesses dotted along the pathway down the hill, I couldn't wait to visit them all. A large pearly-white building loomed in the distance - a museum? Wow. This village seemed like it had so much to see, so much to do ...

Even with my brother's disappointed and bored expression, and my parents' arguing in the background, my mind was reeling with thoughts of adventure and curiosity. This week was going to be interesting.


	3. Chapter 2

~ **Chapter Two** ~

 **Reese**

"Gee whiz, Mom, do you think you could have packed much more stuff?" Timmy complained when his suitcase popped open onto the floor of our rented cottage practically the moment we walked in the door. His clothes went flying all across the room in heaps, along with his toothbrush and other belongings.

I heaved a long sigh. This trip had already been somewhat of a disaster. I flickered my eyes over to my husband Cyrus hoping for some reassurance, but he was already drifting off on the sofa. I fought the urge to kick him awake - could we ever just do something together as a family without him falling asleep in the middle of it? - but I decided to just leave him alone. After all, it wasn't like he wasn't a hard worker, and things hadn't been particularly easy at our shop back in Boondox lately. We'd been struggling to meet all of our orders after we decided to extend our business to out of town, but the postage was killing our finances. We needed to be more local with our customer base. That was why we had thought about taking this trip to Animal Village. Maybe we'd move here and open our business here. Maybe we could make a fresh start.

I watched as Tommy started helping his brother stuff all of the clothes back into the suitcase. Ever so tidy, he tried folding the shirts neatly before placing them in the bottom of the luggage, but Timmy, ever so careless, wadded them into balls and flung them in. Of course, I had told the twins that this was a family vacation so as not to frighten them, but our business was in a lot of danger. I knew Animal Village wouldn't be the ideal place for us to set up Re-Tail, but at this point, I was desperate. I had a whole list of towns we could visit to scope out a place for a new business if this didn't work. All I knew was our family needed more money.

Watching Timmy and Tommy more closely, my stomach lurched a little. _But here, Reese? Did you really have to bring them here?_

I knew it might have been a mistake. I knew what the risk was. But, as I said before, desperate times called for desperate measures.

And maybe, just maybe, deep down inside, I knew it was time.


	4. Chapter 3

~ **Chapter Three** ~

 **Tommy**

"Really, Timmy?" I muttered to my brother as we dragged our luggage to our temporary bedroom in the rented cottage. He had spilled all of his belongings out of his suitcase pretty much the moment we had walked in the door and it took us almost an hour to fold it all up again. Talk about putting our vacation on hold before it even begins!

"It isn't my fault Mom thinks I need clothes for every possible occasion on this trip," he snapped back. "Did you see the things she packed? Footie pajamas! Footie pajamas, Tommy!" He repeated this for emphasis I assume. I stifled a laugh. "As if I'm going to need them in the middle of summer!"

As much as I thought he was overreacting a little, he was right. The weather outside was almost unbearably hot and sticky, and beads of sweat had dampened our fur just from the struggle of hauling around the suitcases. I wasn't sure what had possessed Mom to think that footie pajamas should take up space in our already limited luggage. I just offered my brother a shrug and tried to stay positive.

"Hey, I don't know. But did you see all of the shops in this town? There's a lot of businesses here, hm?"

"Yeah, so? This town has fleas too." I grimaced when he gave his arm a scratch and a small black speck went bouncing off of him. "Wonderful," he said sarcastically.

"So," I continued, trying to ignore what had just happened for the sake of being uplifting, "we've always wanted to open our own shop one day. Maybe we could learn something from the storekeepers in this town."

"Huh! We could ask our parents, but sounds like they can't even keep their shop afloat."

"Well, we've never really wanted to go into that kind of business anyway. We've always wanted to be a department store, right?" I placed a paw on his shoulder and used my other paw to gesture dramatically in front of him as if painting a vision of grandeur. "T&T Emporium, where customers can satisfy all of their shopping needs!"

My brother couldn't hide his brief smirk before wiggling my paw off of his shoulder. "Yeah, maybe we could talk to someone here about business. Maybe we'll get offered an internship."

While I knew he was joking, I couldn't help but guiltily feel hopeful. I'd been wanting a job for a long time now, but the last thing I wanted was to have to work for our parents. Don't get me wrong, I loved them and all, but especially with me getting older I was starting to think a little bit of distance would benefit me. I wanted to become more independent - both financially and emotionally. These were silly dreams, though, if we were going to stay living in Boondox, especially when our parents' shop Re-Tail was the only business there, which only sold refurbished furniture. It was a quaint shop, sure, but it wasn't exactly what I had in mind for a place to learn how to become a true businessman.

"Boys!" Mom called from downstairs to the two of us. We quickly scurried down to the living room to find her standing alone with her own suitcase in front of her.

"Where's Dad?" Timmy asked.

"Well, boys, your father decided that his nap on the train wasn't enough time to sleep, so he's resting for now." I just now noticed that the guest bedroom door was closed. Although my mother's voice was as sickly sweet and endearing toward my father as ever, I could still hear the twinge of irritation in her words too.

"So," she continued, swiping a paw through the messy, sweaty pink fur on top of her head, "I was thinking maybe we could visit the tailor shop in town. I forgot to bring a hat and I think I'm going to need it in this sun."

I could practically feel the groan being suppressed in Timmy's throat, and the flash of indignation radiating off of him, but surprisingly he kept his mouth shut. I could practically hear his thoughts, too: _A visit to the tailor shop? What kind of boring trip is this?_

"Sure thing, Mom," I replied, although I have to admit I was a little disappointed myself. But, it would give me a chance to see all of the other businesses in town more closely, and for now, I knew nothing about how to get around this village. It wasn't like I would know what else to do quite yet, and I sure wasn't about to lie down and take a nap.

My brother and I followed our mom out of the cottage and quietly shut the front door behind us.


	5. Chapter 4

~ **Chapter Four** ~

 **Timmy**

I fought the urge to complain every step of the way as I followed Mom and Tommy down the main path of Animal Village to the tailor shop, but I had to admit, the cool grass felt nice crunching underneath my feet. The sun was sweltering at this time of day, and the hill that we were padding down was so steep I had to walk almost sideways to make sure I didn't go tumbling down the ravine. It was kind of neat, though, especially compared to the boring flatland that Boondox was composed of.

When we made it to the bottom of the hill, and while Mom was rattling on to Tommy about something or another to do with the town's tailors - _bo-ring!_ \- I let my mind wander for just a moment to the river flowing in the distance. Even from as far away as I was, I could see the water sloshing against the edges and nearly seeping into the grass. For just a brief moment, I wondered how cool the water was, and how much I wished I would have brought my swimsuit on this trip.

Ridiculous, really. My mom had remembered to pack footie pajamas for me, but not my own swimsuit. And in the middle of summer.

 _Well,_ I thought to myself, _it couldn't hurt to just dip a toe in, could it?_

I glanced over to Mom and Tommy. "... and we haven't really kept in touch since then, but I wonder if she's doing well." I caught Mom in the middle of talking about who knows what. Honestly, I hadn't been paying attention at all.

"Oh, really?" Tommy replied. He was at least half-heartedly interested, or at least it sounded like he was.

My gaze darted back to the river in the distance. Slowly, I broke apart from their pace and fell back and crept into the bushes nearby. I watched for a moment while they still kept walking, Mom's babbling getting lower and lower as she faded over the next hill.

Now was my chance. _Freedom!_ I was going to go check out that river. Who wanted to go see some boring tailor shop and look at clothes and hats, anyway? I padded through a patch of weeds and relished the thrill of soon being able to feel that icy water on my paws.


	6. Chapter 5

~ **Chapter Five** ~

 **Tommy**

"... and that over there is the museum, I believe there's a owl that runs that, can't remember his name, oh, and I think in recent years I heard his little sister moved in and opened a conservatory upstairs."

"Uh-huh." I couldn't help but be lost when it came to the stories Mom was telling. She'd dart from one story to the next without even finishing the last, and most things it sounded like her memory was a bit questionable. Either way, I guess it filled in the silence, because visually I was engrossed in the peaceful and elegant aura of the village. Everything looked so calm, so still - yet still teeming with life somehow. If you looked closely, there were insects crawling through the leaves and villagers wandering lazily around their houses, but if you looked at it as a whole, everything seemed to be moving so slowly, so calmly ...

I pictured how I could change that. One day, Timmy and I could open our department store here, and we'd have flashing lights and a fancy sign. The villagers would all be buzzing around it -no, there would even be animals from other villages and cities traveling from afar to purchase our goods and wares, too. We'd have red velvet carpeting and only the best quality selection for our customers. I couldn't help but smile at this thought. Of course, I liked the name T&T Emporium, but Timmy didn't like it as much as I did. I was open to any new suggestions, but so far he hadn't come up with any. Although he had dreams of being a business owner one day too, I had the feeling his cynical and realistic worldview often got in the way of him being able to dream like I did. That was just his personality.

"And here we are!" My mother's voice snapped me from my thoughts. I stumbled to a halt in my walking to find we were standing in front of a small reddish colored building with a green roof and white trim. Above the door, a simple but effective sign boasted the words, _Able Sisters_.

I glanced around me. "Hey, where is Timmy?"

I thought for a moment I saw a brief look of dread and nervousness in Mom's eyes before she started to glance around for my brother too. She was already starting to swing open the front door of the shop, however, so she just waved her hoof in disregard and shrugged. "Oh, he probably decided to take a look around the town. I'm sure we'll catch up with him again soon."

I followed her inside the tailor shop and was surprised by the blast of cool air that awaited us inside. It was a nice relief from the warm weather outdoors, but still, somehow there was a hot feeling in the pit of my stomach. The sound of a delicate, vaguely French-sounding instrumental tune played softly over the radio speakers in the store, as well as the sound of a whirring sewing machine. I gazed around the shop and took in all of the clothes that adorned the mannequins and the shelves. There were lots of colorful and vibrant patterns as well as plain and humble ones. The shop wasn't big, but I guess it was organized, and there certainly was variety.

"Hi there!" a cheerful voice exclaimed. "Welcome to Able Sisters, where YOU are the famous fashion designer!" I turned to see a royal blue porcupine with bright orange cheeks greeting us at the entrance. She looked young; maybe seventeen, or eighteen?

"My name's Mabel!" she continued before Mom or I had a chance to talk. Her voice could best be described as sunshine - bright, shrill ... happy. "Hey, I don't think I've seen you two in town before! What brings you here?"

"Oh, Mabel," Mom blurted out. "Oh, I remember you. Sorry, I just saw you a long time ago when I was visiting Animal Village with my husband. It was a long time ago," she added again, as if she hadn't said that already. "Well, my name is Reese, and I'm visiting here with my family for the week, and I seem to have forgotten to pack a hat for the trip..."

"Oh! Well, don't worry about that, we've got you covered! Just go in the other side of the store where my sister Label works; that's where all of the accessories are!"

"Yes, well, actually, I was wondering if an old friend of mine still works here..."

While they talked for a minute, and my mom rambled on, I started to step back a little to really get a good visual of the store. In my mind, I tried to figure out how much it must cost to run a store this size. Of course, I knew I'd never be building T&T Emporium right away - I'd have to start off with something cheap like this first. I looked up at the ceiling, the beams, and thought about how much it would cost to build something like this. _Do I have enough Bells saved up yet from my allowances and birthday money, I wonder...?_

"Oof!" While I was wandering around, I found myself pressed against warm, brown fur, and I pulled away quickly to realize I had bumped into someone who was standing behind the sewing machine. It took a moment for me to gather my thoughts; she was another porcupine, but this one looked considerably older than Mabel. Her quills were brown, and she had freckles scattered across her face. She looked a bit more feminine than Mabel did, though, with her soft brown eyes and pink apron. At first, she made a point not to look at me, and instead focused on the pattern in front of her.

"I'm sorry," she said. "If you're looking for something, could you please ask the clerk, I'm a bit busy..."

"My apologies," I replied in my best grown up tone, then added thoughtfully, "Did you sew all of the clothes here, hm?"

This time, the seamstress's head jerked up from her work and she faced me. That's when my mom cried out.

"Sable!" she exclaimed, rushing over to us. For some reason, there was an emotion in my mother's eyes I had never noticed her have before - what was it? Dread? Pain? Fear? Before I could think too much about it, she embraced the brown porcupine in a hug, who responded a little unsurely and without breaking her gaze from me.

"Sable, it's been so long, hasn't it?" Mom continued. "Oh, and you're busy by your sewing machine, just like always! Glad to see some things haven't changed, right?" My mom always rambled when she was nervous. Why was she nervous right now, though?

"Reese." Sable's voice was flat and a little dazed. There was a long moment of silence, as Sable's eyes flickered from my mom and to me, back and forth. Finally, "What brings you here?"

Mabel appeared behind my mother. "Hey, you know these guys?"

"Oh, of course I know Sable," Mom went on hurriedly. "Oh, Sable, my family and I were just taking a family vacation and we decided to stop in here at the Village. I just finished telling your sister I had to come here because I forgot to bring a hat."

"Oh..." Sable blinked a couple of times, then gave a small shake, as if trying to wake up from a dream. I didn't like the way her eyes raked over me, as if investigating me. "What a nice...surprise. How nice to see you again."

Well. This was a little awkward.

"Tommy?" Sable asked, bowing her head to me ever so slightly.

"Yes," I answered when my mom didn't say anything.

Sable rubbed the crook of her elbow a couple of times nervously. She took a step away from her sewing machine, and looked at my mom again. "Where's Timmy?"

"Oh, I brought him along, but I think he decided to take a little stroll through the village and probably get to know everyone. This is the first time we've taken a trip in a while, so he's probably glad to get out of Boondox. He's so adventurous!"

I shifted on my feet uncomfortably, and I shot my gaze behind Mom to notice Mabel was looking the same. We met eyes for a brief second, but we both quickly looked away. I didn't know why Mom felt the need to tell this lady all about my brother. We were just here for a hat and for some small talk, I thought.

"I see." Sable's expression towards my mom was rather cold for someone that had supposedly been her friend. She stared at me again, and her brown eyes still seemed hardened, uncomfortable - like she was out of her element. "Y-you've grown a lot since I saw you last."

At this, Mabel barged in between all of us. "How did you know them, Sis?" she said in a voice that was really loud and echo-y in the store compared to Sable's level tone.

"Oh, Mabel, we were just visitors in this town when we found our sons Timmy and Tommy. Everyone in town knew who they were! They were such cuties; Sable was a good friend and even sewed some of their baby clothes."

Somehow, with every word Mom spoke, Sable's expression grew more pained, more dizzy; I thought I even saw her flinch a little, as if she were feeling physically sick.

My own belly was starting to feel like a hollow pit at the awkwardness of this encounter. I silently hoped that Timmy was having a better time than I was.


End file.
